equality-would

Updated: June 1, 2025

I have looked with veneration on those stripes as recording the original size of our political family and with pride upon that constellation as marking the family's growth; I glory in the position which Mississippi's star holds in the group; but sooner than see its lustre dimmed sooner than see it degraded from its present equality-would tear it from its place to be set even on the perilous ridge of battle as a sign round which Mississippi's best and bravest should gather to the harvest-home of death.

Jefferson Davis - Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; delivered during the summer of 1858.